Month: September 2019

I actually don’t like buying video games. Which…is kinda hard to tell when I talk of my backlog and Steam library and what not. I’m drowning in video games. Tons of them. I try at least not to pay full price when I do pick up a game.

Renting games was a big part of my life growing up. By the time the rental places closed up there was already Redbox and GameFly. I had ways of playing the games I wanted to while paying a minimum to do so. Then there was the Best Buy “hack”. The Gamers Club promotion they had where I could buy a game at a certain percentage off the price, play it, and if I didn’t wait too long, I could trade it in with a bonus credit and pick up the next thing I wanted to play paying only the difference of a few dollars. Of course, that required the games to hold value and for me to play them as fast as I could to get the most on my trade.

I’ve long since canceled my GameFly subscription and haven’t been to a RedBox in years. I still buy games, of course. You throw in a steelbook or a statue with a game I want to play and I’m pretty much there day one.

The trend I see now is that sort of Netflix model. Pay some amount of money per month and have access to a pretty good library of games. I do that now with Xbox Game Pass and I have tons to play. A lot of brand new titles as well. EA has something like this and so does Ubisoft. I like it, yes, but just like with the TV apps, it’s beginning to get out of hand. Everyone wants a piece of the pie. So just like TV where studios and networks are branching off with their own apps and fees, so are the game publishing companies. It’ll invite competition, sure, but you don’t really have to compete when you’re the ONLY place someone can play a certain game without going out and buying it.

There’s really no solution to this, that I can see. On either side be it gaming or TV. I’d say the market would sort itself out, but I honestly feel there’s enough people to support all these different subscription services.

I’m just not one of them.

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Beauty, of course, is in the eye of the beholder. But it’s very hard to deny the beauty I’ve been seeing while playing God Of War.

Understand first that when I originally bought God Of War, I was playing on a PS4 Pro, but with a HD TV. It was just 1080p. That was it. Same when I bought Horizon Zero Dawn. Same for when I bought Spider-Man and played Red Dead Redemption 2 on my Xbox One X. I had all the capabilities to play and watch in 4K, but I was missing that one critical component – a 4K TV.

Even when November came and I actually got a 4K TV, I didn’t jump right into gaming. I’m not exactly sure why. I went to my movies first and they looked outstanding but for gaming I just went back to my PC and played Destiny 2. For 5 more months or so.

When I had downtime in Destiny 2 (not often, mainly in the late end of an expansion where I’d finished things up and had a week or two before the new one came out), I finally got back to Spider-Man and finished that up. I could see the dramatic difference playing in 4K with HDR. It was beautiful. But nothing prepared me for the beauty of God Of War. All other minor complaints I have about that game aside, the beauty of this thing in 4K has yet to be matched. Then again, I have yet to go diving into my 4K gaming library to really see what’s out there. And I’m really looking forward to it.

If you’ve got the right console for 4K gaming and the TV too, then you already know what I’m talking about. If you only got half of that, a TV without the right console or vice versa, then look into those upcoming Black Friday deals. Consoles will likely see a small drop in price or at least a bundle that gives you around $100 extra value, be it a game or gift cards. And TV’s will be reduced as well (plus you can’t throw a rock in an electronics section without hitting a 4K TV, it’s pretty standard now). Take the plunge if you can. 4K gaming…well, 4K anything is an amazing experience.

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Two hours of programming and we never finished talking about everything seen at PAX. Well, let me be honest – two hours of programming and I never finished talking about PAX.

I’ve been going to forms of this convention now for over 10 years and every one of them is different in how I experience it. Sometimes it’s a lot of appointments and sometimes it can be hardly any. Sometimes I’ll discover something on the show floor that I never had an appointment for and sometimes it’ll all just be a big ol’ bust.

Well, it’s actually never a bust. That’s because of the Indie MegaBooth. That and the offerings on the 6th floor. Both of these spaces house the alternative developers. By that I mean those who are very small teams working with very small budgets but making extraordinary gaming experiences. Be it in storytelling or game play mechanics. Rarely will you ever see the most mind-blowing visuals (though some of them have that), but you will find the hidden gems and the games more people want to talk about than whatever is being shown by the big studios downstairs on the main show floor. Honestly, they should take the cramped MegaBooth (don’t let the name fool you, the space is small, cramped, and packed) and make it the whole 6th floor with all the other indie games up there. But, that’s the point, you’re down there on the main floor getting the most traffic cause everyone’s there to see the big guns and you MIGHT get a little notice to more people – but it’s still annoying.

I’m hoping over the next few months we’ll be able to bring you interviews from some of these smaller developers. Whenever I see games like this, I have an overwhelming urge to tell everyone I can about them and make sure they’re on your radar to play. They might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but they’re guaranteed to be different and you might just discover something amazing that you love.

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